The Weekly Standard

The Department of Education's proposal to broaden the existing borrower defense to repayment rule will give college students new grounds to sue their schools for loan forgiveness. Underemployed grads and downtrodden dropouts can claim they were misled and never got their federally loaned money's worth. But the biggest problem with the proposal is the price tag. Indeed, the potential cost to taxpayers is virtually inestimable in its vastness: somewhere between two and 43 billion dollars, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Back in July, when the regulation was up for public comment, THE WEEKLY STANDARD wrote: There was already a rule to regulate the loan forgiveness process, but it required a higher standard of proof—intentional misrepresentation. Under the rule proposed in June, proof of perceived misrepresentation would suffice. Considering the sunny sales pitches colleges put out for wide-eyed prospies, a stampede to file claims sounds about right. Members of the public may comment on the proposed rule before an August 1 deadline, a rushed timetable according to the Washington Post's editorial board. And assuming it'll advance in its current form, despite the public's cutting commentary, the next step is for conservatives in Congress to try to snatch back the purse strings via a Congressional Review Act vote. The Congressional Review Act lets Congress, under Article I, check the authority of federal agencies doing the executive's bidding. But, judging by federal agencies' successful subversion of a Republican congress under this overreaching administration, a CRA vote will most likely fall to a lame duck veto and a stunted override action.

The federal government's National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is hosting a series of three Edit-A-Thons to improve Wikipedia entries related to gender equality. The collaboration is part of NARA's Amending America initiative celebrating the 225th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Meredith Stewart, NARA's Innovation Hub Director, said that the 'Gender Equality' ...

When you collect comics, there are all sorts of factors that determine the value of the book. Certain important comics (they're referred to as key issues) are high-value. So, for instance, Detective Comics #358 isn't worth all that much, but issue #359 is, because it's the first appearance Batgirl. (Actually, it's the first appearance of the Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl—but never mind that for now.) And first-appearances...

In a lengthy interview recapping some of the pivotal moments of his administration, President Barack Obama told New York magazine that he hopes his successors will not have an imperial presidency. The president said he prefers a functional, collaborative federal government, an option he said didn't often e...

If you live in a battleground state, odds are you've seen an anti-Trump ad railing on Trump's David Duke stumble on CNN's State of the Union...

Smoking rates have fallen appreciably in the last decade, driven by sharply higher cigarette taxes, public smoking bans, and changing mores that have made the activity basically unacceptable in many social circles. Millions of Americans have attempted to quit smoking during that time, with varying degrees of success. Smoking is addictive, making quitting a difficult task for most people. There are a variety of treatments for individuals trying to quit, with varying degrees of efficacy. Hypnosis is popular but not terribly effective, for example, and while nicotine substitutes like patches and e-cigarettes can work, these still subject the smoker's body to the harmful effects of nicotine, so some of the same risks remain. There are also a variety of medicines that ease nicotine cravings. Of these, the smoking cessation drug Chantix has proven to be the most effective treatment for quitting tobacco.

It's bad enough when the federal government compels private American citizens to buy a product from a private company for the first time in all of United States history. It's worse when there's no choice of product. Americans in nearly a third of the nation's roughly 3,000 counties no longer have a choice of Obamacare plans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's analysis of 2017 Obamacare offerings. In response, several Republican senators have introduced legislation to free such affected citizens from Obamacare's individual mandate. That mandate, of course, is the unprecedented, coercive, and—whatever the opinion of five Supreme Court justices, four of whom were nominated by President Obama or President Clinton—unconstitutional core of Obamacare.